By djst
Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:02 pm
Just got my MPC One today and some things stood out right away:
1. This is one complex machine! I had to read the manual again and again and still couldn't figure some things out. For example, in order to autosample, you apparently need to first create a new midi program (not a keygroup program, which would make more sense), or it won't let you set the midi channel to use when triggering notes from the external synth. YouTube helped me figure this out.
2. Saving a project takes ages if you have a few autosampled keygroups loaded. Does it overwrite all samples every time you hit save? It seems like really strange behavior to overwrite sample files if they're unedited since the last save, that will no doubt corrupt the SD card over time.
3. Where is the time-synced traditional ping pong stereo delay? I only found one that wasn't time synced to the beat. It feels too basic to not include, am I missing something? The Hype synth has one built in, but I'd rather use insert or send effects on synths to more easily disable them from the mixer before exporting/exploding stems into my computer DAW.
4. Why are some Hype synth settings hidden? I tried to figure out what was oscillating the sound on a preset but disabling the actual oscillator doesn't remove the oscillation. Is there a way to see all settings? Given the complexity of all the other things in this machine, I'm surprised that they attempted to dumb this particular synth down. The Odyssey synth seems to reveal all settings, making it much more fun to use.
5. Coming from the Digitakt/Digitone, this thing feels slow to start and I definitely miss the autosave feature that doesn't get in the way. The MPC autosave is really in your face with a progress bar that goes on forever, sometimes in the middle of a performance. I wish they would make the safe feature smarter (do it in the background, only overwrite files that have been modified).
6. I was surprised about how the autosamper didn't make better use of the tail of each sample. If expect the MPC to set a pad release decay point on a sample that plays from the end point of the sample loop to the very end of the sample.
7. Sampling in general felt more clunky than I'd expect from a machine that was built for sampling. I'll need to read up on the manual a few more times to understand how it all works. For example, I sampled a longer time while pressing individual pads/keys on the Digitakt to record each drum of a song one by one, but I couldn't find a way to automatically chop that long sample up based on transients for example. I had to manually chop it up instead.
8. Another sampling problem I ran into was when sampling a 132 bpm loop of 8 bars from the Digitakt and then trying to chop it up by bpm. I'm guessing that it picks the master bpm of the MPC (there's no way to specify anything else in the sample editor), and I had that set to 132 bpm too. However, the sample was chopped up with a lot of drifting from the first pad that started right on the beat. Any idea why? You'd think that 132 bpm on a Digitakt is the same thing as 132 bpm on an MPC One...
1. This is one complex machine! I had to read the manual again and again and still couldn't figure some things out. For example, in order to autosample, you apparently need to first create a new midi program (not a keygroup program, which would make more sense), or it won't let you set the midi channel to use when triggering notes from the external synth. YouTube helped me figure this out.
2. Saving a project takes ages if you have a few autosampled keygroups loaded. Does it overwrite all samples every time you hit save? It seems like really strange behavior to overwrite sample files if they're unedited since the last save, that will no doubt corrupt the SD card over time.
3. Where is the time-synced traditional ping pong stereo delay? I only found one that wasn't time synced to the beat. It feels too basic to not include, am I missing something? The Hype synth has one built in, but I'd rather use insert or send effects on synths to more easily disable them from the mixer before exporting/exploding stems into my computer DAW.
4. Why are some Hype synth settings hidden? I tried to figure out what was oscillating the sound on a preset but disabling the actual oscillator doesn't remove the oscillation. Is there a way to see all settings? Given the complexity of all the other things in this machine, I'm surprised that they attempted to dumb this particular synth down. The Odyssey synth seems to reveal all settings, making it much more fun to use.
5. Coming from the Digitakt/Digitone, this thing feels slow to start and I definitely miss the autosave feature that doesn't get in the way. The MPC autosave is really in your face with a progress bar that goes on forever, sometimes in the middle of a performance. I wish they would make the safe feature smarter (do it in the background, only overwrite files that have been modified).
6. I was surprised about how the autosamper didn't make better use of the tail of each sample. If expect the MPC to set a pad release decay point on a sample that plays from the end point of the sample loop to the very end of the sample.
7. Sampling in general felt more clunky than I'd expect from a machine that was built for sampling. I'll need to read up on the manual a few more times to understand how it all works. For example, I sampled a longer time while pressing individual pads/keys on the Digitakt to record each drum of a song one by one, but I couldn't find a way to automatically chop that long sample up based on transients for example. I had to manually chop it up instead.
8. Another sampling problem I ran into was when sampling a 132 bpm loop of 8 bars from the Digitakt and then trying to chop it up by bpm. I'm guessing that it picks the master bpm of the MPC (there's no way to specify anything else in the sample editor), and I had that set to 132 bpm too. However, the sample was chopped up with a lot of drifting from the first pad that started right on the beat. Any idea why? You'd think that 132 bpm on a Digitakt is the same thing as 132 bpm on an MPC One...